problem with the services

Question

Unable to change Microsoft account password since around October 10

Answer 1

Since both the Microsoft account security page and recovery form already fail with “problem with the services,” contact Microsoft Support through Get Help → Contact Support for technical investigation rather than repeating those recovery methods.

Contact the correct support channel

1. Open Contact Microsoft Support.
2. Enter: Personal Microsoft account password change – “problem with the services”.
3. Select Get Help, then Contact Support.
4. If categories are requested, choose:
   • Other Products
   • Manage account security
   • Chat with a support agent in your web browser, if available.
5. If the affected account cannot sign in, use another working Microsoft account to initiate the support request.
6. Tell the agent:
   • This is a personal Outlook.com/Hotmail/Xbox/Skype account.
   • The problem began around October 10, including the year.
   • The exact red message is “problem with the services.”
   • Both the security page and account-recovery form have already been attempted.
   • At which stage the error appears: before verification, after entering a code, or when submitting the new password.
   • The approximate date, time, time zone, browser, and device used.

Microsoft documents this escalation path when password recovery options do not work.^1^ A closely matching case involving a persistent temporary-service error after recovery attempts was also directed to the Microsoft account-support channel.^2^

Do not post the email address, password, verification codes, recovery code, or screenshots containing personal details in this public forum.

Support limitations

Support can investigate the technical failure and identify the available recovery options, but agents cannot manually change account details, send a password-reset link, or bypass identity verification.^1^

If support asks for another diagnostic, use Microsoft’s Sign-in Helper. It checks the supplied account identifier for known account problems and provides the applicable next action.^3^ This is different from submitting the recovery form again.

There is no cited official notice establishing that an October 10 service outage caused this specific error, so report the date as part of the incident history rather than assuming an ongoing outage.

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References

1. Change or reset your Microsoft account password in Windows | Microsoft Support
2. Need help with a hotmail account - Microsoft Q&A
3. I can't sign in to my Microsoft account | Microsoft Support